Currently, the value-added service (VAS) of Short Message Service (SMS) in China is promoted in its early stage, and lacks perfect traffic models and processes. For example, for PrePaid Service (PPS) users, when a short message submitted to the Short Message Service Center (SMSC) needs to trigger multiple services, the service charging operation and the refund operation are repeated. Moreover, because the charging process in the home network of the calling party is different from the charging process in the home network of the called party, some refund operations need to wait for the result of delivering a remote message before the subsequent process can go on.
In the conventional art, the following two charging methods are available for the foregoing short message VAS:
1. Charging Method that Requires the Service Gateway to Participate in Service Scheduling
In order to charge for short message VASs, in the delivery status of the service process, the short message that carries VAS needs to be forwarded to the service gateway through a Data Center for Short Message Service (DCS), and the service gateway participates in the scheduling process and performs charging. As a defect of this method, the network elements unrelated to the service are involved. That is, the service gateway needs to participate in the service scheduling to perform charging for the VAS, thus increasing the complexity of the service process.
2. Charging Method that Requires Assistance of the SMSC
After the DCS handles the service, the optional field of the message submitted to the SMSC carries a charging ID. According to the charging ID, the SMSC performs charging for the service except the communication expense. As a defect of this method, the expense for the short message VAS can be deducted as a communication expense, and the SMSC is unable to record the details of the service expense, namely, unable to perform rating for the service, thus leading to inflexibility of the service charging.
In the process of developing the present disclosure, the inventor finds at least these defects in the conventional art: The method that requires the service gateway to participate in the charging, the service process is too complex; the charging method that requires assistance of the SMSC makes leads to inflexibility of the service charging. No uniform service charging control process is available in the charging method in the conventional art.